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September and October 2012 year end in review

Lynne Christiansen comes back to Terrace Sept. 1 and spends a week at Mills Memorial Hospital after she was flown to Vancouver for treatments of a rare disease in August. She is discharged Sept. 6.

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THE Kitsumkalum First Nation stands to receive more than $40 million and the Kitselas First Nation more than $30 million and each will receive thousands of hectares around Terrace, according to draft treaty preliminary agreements in principle for each First Nation.

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A LOCAL RCMP officer charged with assaulting a woman in the local cell block will not have a criminal record. Const. Robert Hull is handed a conditional discharge with one year probation by Judge Agnes Krantz in provincial court Sept. 7.

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Speaking Sept. 7, provincial jobs minister Pat Bell said August’s posted jobless rate of 11.8 per cent seems at odds with anecdotal evidence he’s heard ­­— and seen — about activity in the area. Bell said he’s directed his officials to speak with officials from Statistics Canada, the federal agency that compiles the figures, to probe what he termed “anomalies” with the numbers.

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NORTHWEST COMMUNITY College needs to spend $45 million on a new structure to better house its technology and trades programs, its president Denise Henning tells city council Sept. 13. That would pay for 120,000 square feet of space containing up to date equipment to produce the kind of graduates needed by industries who are about to set up shop in the region.

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THE Kitimat-Stikine regional district is going to spend nearly $10 million to open new garbage facilities for Terrace and area and for the Hazeltons, it announces Sept. 10. More than half, $5.6 million, will be spent at a new landfill site at Forceman Ridge between Terrace and Kitimat, to handle Terrace and area waste.

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A HOUSE described as a haven for crack dealing and other illegal activity on the 4800 block of Sunset is emptied in what police call a joint effort between themselves and neighbours.

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David Harry Edwardsen of Thornhill is one of five people arrested Sept. 19 following a 14-month long investigation into what RCMP are calling a Terrace-area organized crime ring. He faces 11 drugs and firearms charges.

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The RCMP task force investigating murdered and missing women in B.C. announced a breakthrough in the Highway of Tears case. A DNA match from US citizen Bobby Jack Fowler has been linked to Colleen MacMillen, whose body was found near 100 Mile House in 1974.

October

Former mayor Jack Talstra was recognized Oct. 2 for years of service and contributions to the community of Terrace. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, presented to him by Mayor Dave Pernarowski on behalf of the Governor General of Canada.

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RCMP CONTINUE their investigation into a bomb threat that shut down Northwest Community College’s (NWCC) campus Oct. 2. Students, employees and instructors flooded out of the campus the morning of Oct. 2 and RCMP sealed off the area until a specially-trained explosives-sniffing police dog finished a sweep of buildings and property that evening. As many as 450 people were affected by the evacuation.

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Terrace city council hedged its bets Oct. 9 about allowing more slot machines at Chances’ operation here by wanting to first hear from the public. Council votes to host a community forum after being asked by the BC Lottery Corporation to either increase the number of slot machines allowed at Chances Terrace or remove the maximum number it can have altogether.

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CITING CONTINUING losses, Greyhound wants to cut bus service. The company runs 11 buses eastbound and 11 westbound each week for a total of 22 along Hwy16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert but should its reduction application be accepted, that frequency could drop to just one each way each day or 14 a week. But, losses would be cut by $6.75 million if it was able to eliminate one route and cut service on 15 others.

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After hearing the federal government has approved the arrival of hundreds of Chinese nationals to work in B.C.’s burgeoning coal mining industry, two local political figures cry foul. Two hundred temporary foreign workers are set to arrive in the coming weeks for jobs at an underground coal mine in northeastern B.C. — and news that up to 2,000 workers could be imported for similar B.C. jobs is being met with strong opposition from Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen and Skeena NDP MLA Robin Austin.

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Public school enrollment numbers have continued to drop this year. Officials thought the drop would be approximately 175 students but the actual drop was 137, says Coast Mountains School District director of instruction Brent Speidel.

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THE KSAN House Society lines up another home for its cold weather shelter at the Muks-Kum-Ol building on Braun St.

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The first towers for the Northwest Transmission Line megaproject are up. There are 75 being erected in the Bob Quinn area, the terminus point for the 344km long transmission line which is to connect the Highway 37 North area with BC Hydro’s provincial power grid.

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SENIOR Northwest Community College official Margo van der Touw, who passed away Oct. 28, is being remembered as someone who was able to get things done.

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